Etro will never be painfully cool. And that’s a testament to its inherent pleasures. For the spirit of this house is too generous, unpretentious, and securely anchored to succumb to fashion’s lame urge to exclude. Anyone can join the Etro tribe. And this season, Veronica Etro returned again to that anchor, the house paisley, around which to alchemize a wonderfully rich portmanteau that should seriously tempt new members.
Although Edith Sitwell starred on Etro’s mood board, it was Talitha Getty’s footprint that seemed strongest, stamped on looks that played roughly textured leather and bead-trimmed caftans, ponchos, and cloaks against silk maxis, mid-length dresses, jumpsuits, and pants. A monochromatic opening saw interplays of stripes and paisley that sometimes seemed touched by the geometry of Art Deco. Hammered silver jewelry and gold-hardware hunks of ceramics and minerals—plus the satisfying Led Zeppelin soundtrack—reinforced that Getty-esque frequency of affluent mid-century bohemianism.
It rambled on, touching down in contemporary modernity via silk floral jacquard, white weave–piped running shorts and bra tops, moto-detailed pants in leather, and an acid yellow nylon jacket. Simultaneously, Etro had us harking back to an age where athleisure was as likely the name of an unknown kingdom as it is a trend: There was a lovely print incorporating the pressed-gold lettering and illustration of leather-bound 1920s books and frontispieces, plus bags pragmatically equipped with hip flasks and sketching pencils. A portfolio of pasts played against the present thanks to a blur of geographically disparate decorative motifs. This was a lovely exercise in eclecticism given life by that paisley palm seed.
